The Nintendo Switch and its launch games

Personally I haven’t been that excited about the Nintendo Switch. The first trailer that I saw just didn’t do it for me. I guess there just wasn’t any games in there that intrigued me. I’ve grown quite a particular taste in games lately though. I don’t have the time or patience for long single player adventures such as Skyrim or Zelda (also I’ve never been a Zelda fan, or an RPG fan for that matter). I did however get quite excited when my friend Jinn showed me a trailer for the game Celeste. Now THAT is my kind of game 😀 I’ll embed it here just so you can see for yourself ^_^

Celeste is from the creators of Towerfall, which is a game I greatly appreciate ^_^ Unfortunately Celeste doesn’t come out for quite some time, it’s date is not even set yet.. 😦

I had no plans to acquire the Nintendo Switch, at least not at launch, until a friend told me that the Nintendo Switch would get it’s own exclusive version of Shovel Knight! I love Shovel Knight and its amazing soundtrack by Jake Kaufman ^_^ So that alone made me go online and pre-order the Switch merely 3 days before launch XD And I actually received it on launch day!

Nintendo Switch, blue and red

Super Bomberman R & 1, 2 Switch for Nintendo Switch

Nintendo Switch with games

Now I didn’t buy Zelda with it, and I also wasn’t interested in Just Dance, but I got 1, 2, Switch and Super Bomberman R. These were the only 4 physical games available at launch from what I could see. I’ve tried out 1,2 Switch and I must say that I’m quite disappointed in it. I bought it at full retail price, it was even €1 more expensive than Bomberman! And it contains 28 simple games that you are supposed to play with friends (at first there’s only 7 games until you’ve tried 5, then the rest unlocks). We just found it kind of embarrassing and lame though. Maybe we weren’t in the right mood, but I still feel that this title should have been bundled with the system for free.

1, 2, Switch – Nintendo Switch

1, 2, Switch – Nintendo Switch

When I received the Switch I also downloaded two versions of Shovel Knight. The new Spectre of Torment and the Shovel Knight Treasure Trove. I tried out Spectre of Torment first which is supposed to be a prequel I think, and this one was absolutely amazing! Once I booted up the other Shovel Knight game though, they apparently had three games in one. You could play as Shovel Knight (the original), Plague Knight in Plague of Shadows and as Spectre Knight in Spectre of Torment, so apparently I didn’t have to buy that stand alone game?! Why have it as a stand alone at all when it’s in the bundle?!? And why didn’t they say anything about it in the shop?? Annoying..

Shovel Knight – Spectre of Torment

We are Manny…

Shovel Knight – Spectre of Torment

Shovel Knight – Spectre of Torment

Weeee be Legion..

Shovel Knight – Spectre of Torment

Shovel Knight – Shovel of Hope

Shovel Knight – Shovel of Hope

Shovel Knight – Plague of Shadows

Shovel Knight – Plague of Shadows

I also downloaded a rhythm game called Voez. I first got a bit surprised and also a bit disappointed when it told me I had to play the game in the portable state and not through the TV, and when I found out it was a touch-screen type of game. I prefer rhythm and precision-button-pressing-games to be on joysticks, otherwise I might as well be playing them on my phone.. but I gave it a shot.

First of all it had an incredible amount of songs! Just look at this library:

Voez – ABCD

Voez – EFGH

Voez – IJKL

Voez – MNOP

Voez – QRST

Voez – QRST

Voez – UVW

And when I began playing it it was kind of a nice flow through the songs. You didn’t get interrupted by the constant “GOOD!”, “OK!”, “MISS!”, “EXCELLENT!!” that you usually see in these types of games, instead you got the score and details at the end of the stage where you could see the amount of perfects and misses. There were three different difficulties, ranging from Easy to Hard to Special (?), which was kind of weird.. they just skipped Medium XD It still works well, but the music is what’s most important about rhythm games like this in my opinion. In Voez case I didn’t quite fall for the tunes, it’s a lot of generic J-Pop and Techno and most songs sound the same.. I would have preferred a wider range of genres, but I enjoyed playing it whenever I did encounter a decent tune 🙂

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

Voez – Nintendo Switch

When looking through the Nintendo Switch’s e-shop during launch day I found a total of 18 games, where as 4 were the retail games I mentioned earlier. 5 games were old Neo Geo games that had been ported to the system. I already have these originals for my Neo Geo so I didn’t feel like spending €8 for a digital copy of games I already have 😉 I could strongly recommend Waku Waku 7, Metal Slug 3 and Shock Troopers to anyone who haven’t played them though ^_^

Neo Geo Waku Waku 7 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Waku Waku 7 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Waku Waku 7 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Metal Slug 3 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Metal Slug 3 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Metal Slug 3 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Metal Slug 3 – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Shock Troopers – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Shock Troopers – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Shock Troopers – Nintendo Switch

Neo Geo Shock Troopers – Nintendo Switch

There was a game called Vroom in the Night Sky, which just sounded and looked totally ridiculous. The description was poorly translated from what I assume may have been Japanese, and the graphics looks like poor N64 graphics! I didn’t dare to pay for this game… XD

“Vroom in the Night Sky” is a “Magical Bike Action Game”. The features of this game are Fantastic feeling, Speedy feeling, and Realistic feeling by HD rumble.

Vroom in the Night Sky – Nintendo Switch

Vroom in the Night Sky – Nintendo Switch

Vroom in the Night Sky – Nintendo Switch

There’s an RPG game that looked a bit more polished in the e-shop, it’s called I am Setsuna. The art style kind of reminds me of Bastion or Child of Light, but it’s an old school style RPG. Something I read in the description of the game made me appreciate it a bit more, but I’m still not into RPG’s enough to buy it. It read: “20+ hours of seamless action, a more compact experience factoring in target market’s availability of time”. Does this mean that the Nintendo Switch is actually targeted towards the working young people between 20-40 like in the original trailer? Interesting… I really do hope that Nintendo will get rid of all the child-friendly nonsense and the endless tutorials in their games.. gamers are not stupid, we managed to figure out how to play Mega Man back in the day without tutorials, so why do we need them now playing Yoshi’s New Island?!

I am Setsuna – Nintendo Switch

I am Setsuna – Nintendo Switch

I am Setsuna – Nintendo Switch

I am Setsuna – Nintendo Switch

There was also a simulator game called New Frontier Days, which kind of reminds me of FarmVille on Facebook XD and there was Othello, the classic board game, and a racing game called Fast RMX. I’m not that into racing games, but I might get it eventually…

Fast RMX – Nintendo Switch

Fast RMX – Nintendo Switch

Fast RMX – Nintendo Switch

And finally Snipperclips, this game I am probably gonna buy soon. It looks like it could be fun with friends 🙂

Snipperclips – Nintendo Switch

Snipperclips – Nintendo Switch

Snipperclips – Nintendo Switch

Snipperclips – Nintendo Switch

Nintendolife has a pretty good list of most upcoming Nintendo Switch games, unfortunately we’re gonna have to wait a bit for the fun stuff to hit the console, but I’m hoping the Nintendo Switch will get a strong game library 🙂